SPOTLIGHT: GOP opposes national school board for US

12:10 AM,
Feb. 22, 2014

Written by

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander

Over the last decade, the United States Department of Education has become so congested with federal mandates that it has actually become, in effect, a national school board. States must come to Washington for approval of their plans to educate their students.

This congestion of mandates is caused by three things: No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the administration's use of waivers. Together, they've imposed federal standards for what children must know in reading and math, they've coerced some states into adopting Common Core standards, and they've imposed federal ...